1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an architecture for electrical networks and, more particularly, to an electrical/electronic network architecture for vehicles or other systems which uses a reconfigurable interface layer between sensors/actuators and controllers and allows messages from sensors to be dynamically routed to different controllers, thus offering an opportunity for consolidation of controllers, and providing better fault tolerance in the event of a device failure.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Modern vehicles include a significant content of electrical and electronic (E/E) systems. These systems include numerous sensors, actuators and controllers which handle everything from unlocking doors to controlling the performance of the engine or suspension. The reliable operation of the E/E systems is very important, as there is often no other way to perform a function on the vehicle if a particular E/E system becomes inoperative.
The proliferation of sensors, actuators and controllers adds a lot of cost and complexity to a vehicle. Traditional E/E network architectures lack the flexibility to gracefully handle device failures, or to adapt as needed to maximize performance or minimize overhead. This is because in traditional architectures, sensors and actuators for a particular sub-system communicate directly with a controller which controls the sub-system. In the event of a failure of such a controller, the affected sub-system's control functions cannot be handled by another controller in the vehicle, because communication with the affected sensors and actuators is lost. In addition, in traditional architectures, consolidation of controllers is not possible, because individual controllers typically do not have access to sensor data from other sub-systems.
There is a need for an E/E network architecture which allows greater fault tolerance through dynamic reconfiguration, and an opportunity for integration of controllers.